


Photograph of the Year

by connorssock



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Abduction, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Siblings, Hostage Situation, M/M, gavin whump, tear gas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 03:28:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16802752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/connorssock/pseuds/connorssock
Summary: Gavin steals some prototypes from Elijah that let androids scan as human and humans scan as android. He doesn't expect to actually use it when a group storm the precinct to abduct Nines. Instead, he ends up being taken and dealing with the FBI's hamfisted way resolution of hostage situations.





	Photograph of the Year

**Author's Note:**

> Do I even know how policing procedures actually work? Hell no.

Visiting his brother had become a more frequent occurrence once the revolution had happened. Gavin found that he and Elijah butted heads a lot less frequently and he even enjoyed the sneak previews of things that were to come on the market eventually. Perhaps his understanding of his brother’s enthusiasm for all things android was fuelled by his partnership with the newly liberated RK900 model.

That had been an unspectacular event in a way. When Gavin had walked into the precinct a few people shot him curious glances and murmured. There was a sense of anticipation in the air and people stopped even pretending to work when Gavin was called to Fowler’s office. The glass room revealed an android waiting patiently in there, almost Connor’s identical twin but not quite.

The meeting itself had been fairly straightforward. RK900 was to work in the precinct and needed a partner to show him the ropes. That dubious honour had fallen to Gavin as the most senior member of staff without an assigned partner. Gavin had a good idea about what people were expecting out in the bullpen. He’d throw and absolute paddy, rage against having an android partner, threaten to quit and be an utter asshole to the android at every opportunity. They were in for a disappointment. Gavin looked over at the android that stood silently next to him, gave him a once over and the corner of his mouth tipped up into a half grin.

“You any good?” he asked.

“The entire procedural manual of the DPD has been downloaded into my programming and accessible within 0.02 seconds in any situation,” the android replied evenly.

“And if we have to bend the rules?”

“I’ll be a deviant however you need me to be.”

The reply had Gavin bark out a laugh and nod. They’d get on just fine. He didn’t hate androids, not really. Connor was a special case and Gavin hadn’t raged against him specifically. It was only the fact that Connor was given to Anderson, a lazy drunk while Gavin had worked his ass off to get somewhere. Surely that kind of work ethic was more deserving of a state of the art partner rather than what Anderson was doing.

Now though, he had his own supercomputer partner, one that outperformed even Connor if things were to be believed. If he helped Gavin’s case closure rate improve and put him in line for a promotion then that was just tickety-boo.

The rest was anticlimactic in a way. They got to work, sniped at each other without any real heat. Nines kept Gavin on his toes while Gavin pushed the boundaries of Nines’ deviancy. It was a happy partnership that nobody could have predicted to work, let alone lead to more.

There was never an official reveal or announcement, just a slow spread of realisation that there was more of an attachment between Nines and Gavin than strictly professional. Only one idiot tried to complain to Internal Affairs and they were rapidly silenced by the response that because it was a relationship between and android and a human they were not going to pose a problem. Whatever that meant. Rumour had it, Fowler had already smoothed things over with them in one instance so wasn’t going to do any less for another two members of his team.

An additional benefit of dating Nines as well as working with him was that Gavin had more of an incentive to repair his relationship with his brother. Which took a lot less effort than Gavin would have thought – once he moved past the knowing smirks whenever Nines was mentioned.

It was on another such visit that Elijah was excitedly showing off his latest creation. Two small machines that clipped unobtrusively onto clothing, even under clothes if so desired.

“You know how androids want to seem more human?” Elijah was flipping one of the boxes labelled A in his hands. “Put this on,” he passed Gavin a pair of strange looking goggles.

Hesitantly, Gavin slipped them on. Nothing looked different except when he looked at Elijah a label came up saying “human” while a glance at Chloe labelled her as an RT600.

“They simulate how an android sees the world,” Elijah explained with a wide grin. “Now watch this.”

He clipped the box to Chloe’s belt and Gavin blinked. The label identifying her as and RT600 pixelated and rewrote itself to say “human”. The second box was in Elijah’s hand and had a sticker with the letter “H” on it.

“What model should I be?” he teased, childishly eager to show off his newest toys.

“RK900,” Gavin replied without even thinking.

After a moment of fidgeting, Elijah secured the box to his waistband and the label attached to him read RK900. It made Gavin laugh lightly, Elijah was many things but he most certainly could never live up to the capabilities of an RK900 model. Only an idiot would fall for that.

“What do you think?” Elijah asked as he took the boxes off and put them back onto the table and Gavin pulled the goggles off.

“It is so weird.”

“I’m going to work on an implant for androids so they don’t have to wear a box all the time. Or worry about where to put it when they don’t have clothes on,” the wink Elijah coupled that with was eye roll worthy.

Out of loving spite, Gavin slipped the two boxes in his pocket and winked at Chloe who watched the whole thing. She smiled knowingly at him and helped distract Elijah from noticing.

It was a whim to palm the two boxes and Gavin all but forgot about them in his coat pocket. An e-mail had popped up in his inbox from Elijah with instructions on turning the boxes on and ramblings about beta testers and feedback forms. Somehow Gavin got the impression he was meant to steal the boxes. Not that he’d ever thought about using them during sex. He didn’t think Nines minded that Gavin scanned as human.

The boxes became useful completely outside the bedroom and not quite in the way Gavin had expected. It was Friday lunchtime; most of the precinct was quiet. The group stormed the bullpen by force. The handful of officers was slow to react in the face of twenty masked and goggled individuals brandishing guns. Gavin stood with them, shoulder to shoulder with Nines. Those goggles looked eerily familiar.

“We only want the RK900,” one of the group spoke up, voice distorted by a modulator. “Hand it over and we’ll leave quietly.”

As subtly as possible, Gavin reached into his pocket. A glance down at the boxes, he turned the one marked “A” on and slipped it into Nines’ pocket while the “H” one he clipped to the back of his own trousers and made sure it was hidden by his shirt.

“There,” one of the criminals pointed towards them.

Nines tensed, ready to fight until Gavin shoved him violently to the side. There was no time to run though, guns were pointed at him.

“Come with use RK900 and your human won’t be harmed.”

A quick glance to the side revealed that Nines had regained his balance and was stood stiff, glaring down the guns aimed at him.

Rough hands shoved at Gavin, a bag was placed over his head. He didn’t fight being pushed out of the precinct and into what he assumed to be a waiting van. What Gavin did object to was the taser that embedded into his stomach and made his muscles spasm viciously until he lost consciousness.

The bullpen was silent. Their protests were met with guns pointed at them as Gavin was dragged out. Nobody understood.

“What the hell?” Collins asked eyes wide and staring at Nines.

“I believe it may have to do with this,” Nines replied and pulled the box from his pocket. He threw it towards Connor who was walking in through the entrance with Hank. It was impressive how easily his predecessor caught the object without paying much attention. Nines scanned him and was surprised to see him labelled as “human”.

“I think we have our answer. Now, let’s track the van and get our detective back.”

The whole bullpen was in an uproar, tracking where the van had disappeared to, trying to find the identity of the group, pinpoint individuals. It was a major operation, especially given the fact that one of their own had been abducted.

“Got them,” Hank announced with a humourless grin. “They’re at the old, abandoned hospital. Pinging address now.”

Going against all rules and regulations, the station emptied quickly, every single available officer wanted to help or at least witness the criminals being arrested. It hadn’t taken them too long to find everything, half an hour at most but they were all painfully aware of how long even a minute could be in the wrong conditions. Half an hour might as well have been a lifetime.

At the abandoned hospital perimeters were set up, a Fowler and Connor approached the line to negotiate. In typical, dramatic fashion, Perkins showed up with the FBI, having been alerted to the incident. He took over the megaphone after condescendingly reassuring the others that his teams were in place too, command centre being set up as they spoke.

“We do not negotiate with terrorists,” Perkins announced. He slipped a pair of goggles over his eyes and scanned the building.

“As suspected, eight humans standing around a kneeling RK900. Execute plan Alpha, fire on my command,” he spoke into the radio on his shoulder. “Fire.”

Three whistling booms sounded and the DPD was helpless to do anything but watch the smoking canisters fly through the windows and leak until mist filled the room.

“I like a nice easy job. You android will walk out of there unharmed while we round up the criminals.”

“You idiot!” Fowler snarled and his officers watched astounded. The behaviour was more what they would have expected from Hank than anyone else. “The reading of RK900 is false. That’s one of our officers in there. Did you even read the briefing?”

People started running out of the building, choking and eyes struggling to stay open in the face of the pain. They were rounded up quickly and bustled away. There was no sign of Gavin. Deciding that he’d spent enough time waiting, Nines pushed past the barrier and approached the steps that lead up into the hospital. He could hear a rasping wet cough.

“Gavin!” Nines shouted, hurrying his steps.

A figure stumbled through the doorway, arms tied behind his back.

“Nines!”

Gavin’s voice was a wet rasp as he tried to blink his eyes open. He almost tumbled down the stairs, would have probably fallen if Nines hadn’t caught him and gently guided him down to his knees. Tears streamed down Gavin’s cheeks, each breath was a wheeze as he coughed and retched while his nose ran red with blood and snot. His eyes were squeezed shut.

“You’re okay,” Nines tried to reassure him.

He pressed their foreheads together and reached behind Gavin to feel the ties that bound his wrists. With great simplicity, Nines grabbed the middle section and pulled. Immediately, Gavin’s hands were gripping his shoulder tightly, trying to anchor himself.

“Fuck, fuck,” he gasped. “I can’t see, Nines. I can’t see!”

Somewhere in the background flashes were going off, photographs taken for the news no doubt. Nines ignored them, pulled one of Gavin’s hands off his shoulders and pressed it against his cheek.

“You’re okay, I’m here. It’s just tear gas,” Nines glanced behind him to see two medics approaching with bottles of saline water and a host of other equipment.

He gestured for them to approach.

“The emergency services will check you over; there are two of them here. They’re going to touch you, okay?”

“No!” Gavin pressed closer to Nines. “You. Only you. Please.”

With a gentle “okay” Nines reached to take the bottle from the paramedic. It was passed to him already uncapped. With his other hand he threaded his fingers into Gavin’s hair and urged him to tip his head back.

“You’ll need to open your eyes,” he murmured and tipped the bottled so it gently splashed over Gavin’s tightly shut eyes.

It took a few moments of soft encouragement before Gavin could blink them open for a moment before they were squeezing shut again with a soft whine.

“You’re doing so well. Open them again a few more times. Then I’ll wash your face.”

Nines could feel Gavin tremble in his hold as he forced his eyes open under the steady stream. They had to stop a few times for Gavin to cough and hack up mucus, gagging as the irritation clawed at his throat. Each wheezing breath was painful to hear but Nines knew they needed to wash his eyes, wipe down his face before they could put an oxygen mask on his face.

The cloth he was passed was soft to touch, damp with distilled water. Nines set about wiping Gavin’s face, noting the blotchy redness of the burns the gas had left behind. He wiped his neck, hands and wrists. Any exposed skin, Nines meticulously cleaned. Gavin’s eyes were still scrunched up, but at least the initial panic had died down, his grip on Nines no longer quite so ferocious. Finally, the oxygen mask was gently placed over his face and Nines pulled him to his chest.

“I’m going to pick you up, take you to the ambulance, okay?” Gavin weakly nodded and wrapped his arms around Nines’ shoulders.

They stood, Gavin firmly cradled in his arms while one of the paramedics carried the oxygen tank and the other the rest of their kit. Placing Gavin on the stretcher, Nines was almost surprised at how unerringly accurate the hand grabbing his shoulder was.

“Don’t leave me,” Gavin begged.

A quick look at the medics who nodded at him and Nines leaned forward to press a kiss to Gavin’s forehead.

“I’ll be right next to you,” he said and stepped into the ambulance.

It took Gavin three days before he was back at work, intent on returning and pretending nothing had happened. He didn’t quite expect people to clap him on the shoulder and give him warm smiles.

“Made the news I see,” Hank rumbled at him good naturedly and Gavin gave him a confused stare.

Without another word, Hank grabbed a newspaper from the table in front of the TV and gently pressed it into Gavin’s hands. There, on the front page was Gavin, fingers white as they dug into Nines’ shoulders when they knelt on the ground, foreheads pressed together. The article continued on the third page with a few more choice pictures while the journalist waxed lyrical about the beauty of android-human partnerships.

What Gavin didn’t expect was to become an overnight champion of android relationships, especially once it was leaked that he and Nines were more than just work partners. It made him squirm uncomfortably and was grateful when a few weeks later he had a letter arrive.

It was from Elijah which was strange enough. Two invitations slipped out of the envelope for him and Nines to the Photograph of the Year Awards, along with a business card for a tailor’s.

_All paid for already, just pick what you want and see you there. E_

**Author's Note:**

> I've got prompts open over on Tumblr (@connorssock) where I'm excited to be working on the first prompt I've had in this fandom!


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